I read 50 business books. These 11 will make you RICH

Over the last few years, I've read over 50 books on entrepreneurship.

From the classics that cover the fundamentals to the newer ones that challenge everything we think we know about building a business.

And through building a sevenfigure business myself alongside my YouTube channel, I've learned that most business books are either completely useless or gamechanging.

There's hardly ever a middle ground. Some gave me ideas that made me thousands, whilst others just collected dust on the shelf.

And so in this video, I wanted to share with you 10 books that really moved the needle for me. The ones that changed how I think about business, helped me avoid expensive mistakes, and ultimately played a huge role in growing my revenue.

Let's dive in. First one is Mindset by Carol Dwek. This is one of those books that sounds almost too simple to be useful, but it's actually one of the most important books I've read when it comes to building a business.

Carol Dwek is a psychologist who spent decades researching how people approach challenges and learning.

And what she found is that there are basically two mindsets that people operate from.

A fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

A fixed mindset is the belief that your abilities are set in stone.

You're either good at something or you're not. People with a fixed mindset say things like, "I'm just not a numbers person or it's too late for me or I can't do that because of X.

" And the growth mindset on the other hand believes that anything can be learned and developed with time and effort.

And the difference between these two mindsets really comes down to one tiny word and that is yet. Instead of saying I'm not good at marketing, you can say I'm not good at marketing yet.

That one word changes everything.

Reading this book made me realize that literally everyone who's good at something was once terrible at it. The only difference is they stuck with it for long enough to get better.

So instead of thinking I can't do this, I started thinking more and more I can't do this yet.

And then that shift, as small as it sounds, made me way more willing to try things, mess up, learn, try again until I could do it.

So if you're someone who gets discouraged easily or feels like you're not naturally good at business stuff.

This book will rewire how you think about learning because the truth is you can learn pretty much anything, you just haven't learned it yet. Next on the list is The Almanac of Naval Ravitand.

So, this book is a bit different because Naval didn't actually write it.

Eric Jorgensson compiled Naval's tweets, his podcast, his appearances, and interviews into one place. And honestly, I'm so glad he did because Naval Rabicant has some of the clearest thinking on wealth creation that I've ever read or come across.

The big concept that completely changed how I thought about making money that he mentions in this book is leverage.

Most of us are taught that the way to make more money is to work harder or work more hours. You want to double your income, work twice as much.

But there's an obvious problem to that.

There's only so many hours in a day and at some point you will hit a ceiling.

And Nao in this book says that the real path to wealth isn't about trading more of your time for money. It's about using leverage so that your effort can be multiplied.

He breaks leverage down into a few types. There's labor leverage when you hire people to multiply your time.

There's capital leverage where you use money to make money. But the most interesting one was code and media.

code and media are what he calls permissionless leverage.

You don't need anyone's permission to create them and they can reach millions of people without you needing to do any additional work.

When I read this and I read this on a flight, it really clicked for me because in banking if I wanted to make more money, I had to work harder or get promoted.

But with YouTube, I could create one video and it could reach hundreds of thousands of people and I could still just earn AdSense from that one video.

I was still only putting in the same amount of time, but the output was multiplied.

And this is probably the biggest mindset shift anyone can make when it comes to building wealth.

Stop thinking about how many hours you can work and start thinking about how you can use leverage to multiply your efforts.

If you're stuck in the trade time for money mindset, this book will really open your eyes to a completely different way of thinking about wealth that a lot of people haven't been exposed to.

Next one is Anything You Want by Derek Civers. This book is short, like you could read it in an afternoon short.

What I love about this book is how it completely flips the typical startup advice on its head.

We're constantly told we need to have this massive vision, scale fast, disrupt industries.

But Derek argues the opposite.

He recommends not to think big from the start. He says just be yourself because authenticity is what actually attracts customers and talent.

And al honestly this was such a relief to read because when I first started out my business online it was so unbelievably scrappy.

I was filming videos for my website on my phone editing them myself midnight after work. My website was shambolic.

There was nothing polished or professional about it. I have a pretty high threshold of embarrassment.

I don't get embarrassed easily, but looking back I still cringe a little bit when I see it.

But I'm so glad I did it like that and didn't wait until I had a proper equipment, a team, a brand identity before I could really call it a business.

And actually, I find that the comments that you tend to receive at the start are often a lot more heartfelt because that is where the most scrappy authentic version of you is coming out and it's connecting with more people than any polished version really ever could.

And that authenticity is often what builds trust. So, if you're thinking about starting a business or you're in the early stages and feeling like everything needs to be perfect before you launch something, this book is a good reminder that it doesn't.

Just start scrappy, be yourself, and let that authenticity do the work. Next up on this list, we have The E-Myth Enterprise by Michael Gerber. And actually, there is a revisited version of this, which is what I recommend. This is the original, so there is a newer one. If you're going to order it, order the new one.

And I read this book a few years ago, and I reread it.

I reread this and this book every couple of years, multiple times now. And rereading this is what prompted me to make this video cuz going back to it with a few more years of business experience under my belt, I picked up things that I missed the first time around and it's probably one of the most important books for anyone who's thinking about starting a business because it addresses the biggest mistake that most entrepreneurs make and it's a mistake that I definitely made.

The book talks about something that the author calls the entrepreneurial myth.

And it's this idea that if you're good at the technical work of a business, you'll be good at running a business that does that work.

So, if you're a great baker, you assume you'll be great at running a bakery.

If you're good at graphic design, you think you'll be good at running a design agency.

But the truth is being good at the work and being good at running the business are two completely different skill sets.

When I started my YouTube channel, I was pretty good at making videos and explaining finance concepts.

But that didn't automatically mean I knew how to run a business. I had no systems, no processes.

Everything was just me doing everything manually whenever I had time. And this is where most businesses fail. the owner gets stuck working in the business instead of working on the business. You're so busy doing the day-to-day tasks that you never actually build a business that can run without you. So, the author's solution is to think like a franchiser from day one. Build systems and processes for everything so that the business isn't dependent on you showing up and doing all the work yourself.

And this was a tough pill to swallow because when you're starting out, it feels like an overkill.

Why would I document a process when I'm the only person doing it?

But I definitely learned this the hard way.

If you don't build these systems early, you'll hit a ceiling where the business can't grow because you're the bottleneck. And that started happening to me and hence why I reread it.

If you're in the early stages of your business and you're doing absolutely everything yourself, this book will show you why that's not sustainable and how to start building a business that can actually scale.

Next up on the list, we have The Diary of a CEO by Steven Barlet. This book covers 33 laws of business and life.

And honestly, there are so many good ones in here.

But the one that really challenged my thinking, especially coming from a banking background, is the law about hiring people better than you.

In traditional corporate environments, there's this unspoken fear about hiring people who might be smarter or more talented than you. It feels threatening, like if you hire someone better than you, they might take your job or make you look bad. But Steven flips that completely.

He argues that if you want to build something truly great, you need to hire people who are better than you in their specific areas. Your job as a leader isn't to be the best at everything.

It's to bring together people who are each the best at their thing.

And what I love about this is that the principles I actually saw for myself.

After appearing on Diary over a co, I went back to meet Steven and his team at their London headquarters a few months ago and I met all the people that he worked with and you could just see the caliber of talent that he surrounded himself with.

We've since partnered as part of their new creator venture and just being around that environment where you're surrounded by the people who are the best at what they do really showed me how much of a difference having the right people around you makes when it comes to potential and business growth.

So, if you're a control freak who thinks you need to do everything yourself, or if you're scared of hiring people who might be better than you at certain things, this book will completely change how you think about building a team, plus 32 other business and life laws.

As an entrepreneur, you end up juggling a lot of things. And every time you start something new, whether it's a new project, a new product, a new system, there's always that moment where you have two options. Either you spend days, if not weeks, learning how to do it yourself, or you hire someone who already knows exactly what they're doing and can do it in a fraction of the time.

That's why I use today's sponsor, Fiverr.

Whenever I need something done, whether that's an Excel pro to build a custom calculator, a WordPress developer to fix a website issue, or a video editor to create onbrand animations for the channel, I can always find the right person there.

It's become my go-to place to get expert help quickly without spending weeks trying to figure things out myself.

And honestly, it's crazy how many hours a freelancer can save you.

It can be anything, no matter how advanced it is.

Automating reports, cleaning up data, designing templates. It all adds up and frees up so much time to focus on the stuff that you do, the creative, the strategic work.

If you're curious to see how much time you can save and how much more efficient you can be and want to find handvetted trusted experts in anything from AI automation right through to design, you can head to pro.

fivr.com to get started. Next on this list, we have the personal MBA by Josh Calfman.

So here's the thing. I studied finance at university and then worked in investment banking for years and I was surrounded by people with MBAs and there was always this underlying assumption that if you really wanted to understand business you need to go and get an MBA.

But this book just completely changes that.

Josh Calfman argues that you don't need to spend 2 years and tens of thousands of pounds or dollars on an MBA to understand how businesses work.

The core concepts of business are actually pretty straightforward.

they've just been wrapped up in jargon and complexity to make them seem more impressive than they are.

So, the book breaks down business into five core areas: value creation marketing sales value delivery, and finance. And when you strip away all the fancy terminology, running a business really does come down to those five fundamentals. What I loved about this book is how practical it is.

It's not just theory or academic.

It's actually here's what you actually need to know to run a business explained in plain English.

And I probably learned more from this book about building a business than I learned in 3 years doing business as one of my modules at university.

If you've ever felt like you need some formal business education before you start a business or a company or a side hustle or if you're intimidated by all the business jargon out there, this book will show you that business fundamentals are actually very accessible.

You don't need an MBA.

You just need to understand the basics and then go out and apply them. Next book on this list is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen.

This book completely rewired my thinking about success.

And honestly, it's a bit annoying because it takes away any excuse you might have for not making progress.

The core idea is simple.

The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people isn't some massive action or lucky break.

It's the small, seemingly insignificant choices that they make every single day. And here's the thing, these choices are easy to do, but they're also easy not to do.

Reading for 30 minutes a day is easy to do, but it's also easy to scroll Instagram for 30 minutes a day. Going to the gym is easy to do.

It's also easy to skip it.

Saving a tiny portion of your money each month is easy to do, but it's also easy to spend it.

The problem is that when you skip the gym once or spend instead of save once, nothing bad happens.

You don't see any negative consequences immediately.

So, it's really easy to convince yourself that it doesn't matter.

But that's the whole point of the slight edge. These small actions compound over time. Do them consistently and you get success.

Skip them consistently and you get failure.

But the most jarring bit is that the results don't show up until much much later.

Which is why most people underestimate how important they are.

If you're someone who's waiting for that one big breakthrough or looking for the secret hack that's going to change everything overnight, this book will be a reality check.

The next book is 100 million offers by Alex Hozi. This book is one of those rare ones where I wish I'd read it years earlier because it would have saved me so much trial and error.

Alex Hoszi breaks down how to create offers so good that people feel stupid saying no.

The core idea is that most businesses struggle not because they have a bad product, but because they have a bad offer. And there is a difference.

Your product is what you're selling.

Your offer is everything around it.

The pricing, the guarantee, the bonuses, how it's packaged, the terms. And what I love about this book is that the principles he teaches are completely universal.

They can apply to pretty much any business.

So I've recommended it to so many of my friends who run different kind of practices, whether it's selling software, consulting, physical products, services, it's very applicable to almost any business owner. So, if you're struggling to get people to buy what you're offering, or if you're not sure why your competitors are doing better than you, even though your product is just as good, this book will show you that the problem probably isn't your product, it is your offer. The next one on my list is 0ero to1 by Peter Theal.

Peter Theal, who co-founded PayPal, argues that the best businesses don't compete in existing markets, they create entirely new ones. The title 0 to1 refers to creating something that doesn't exist yet as opposed to one to n, which is just copying what already works and trying to do it slightly better.

And this was a really big shift for me because when you're starting out, the natural instinct is to look at what's already successful and then just try to replicate it. You see someone doing well with a certain type of content or a business model and you think, I'll just do that but make it better.

But Theo argues that actually that's the hardest part.

When you're competing in an existing market, you're fighting for scraps.

The real opportunity is in creating something new, going from zero to one. And what I found really interesting is his perspective on competition.

He says competition is for losers. If you're in a competitive market, you're fighting on price, you're fighting for attention, and your margins get squeezed.

But if you create something unique, something that goes from zero to one, you can actually build a monopoly in your space.

And that's really reframed how I think about business.

before it would be okay what's happening or what are other people doing and how can I create my own version of it and make it even better or what are people in other geographies offering and how can I apply to the UK or Europe but now I'm starting to think okay what can I create that doesn't exist yet what's my zero to one so if you're thinking about starting a business and you're worried about how crowded your market is this book will show you why that might be the wrong question to focus on next up we have the 48 laws of power by Robert Greenh this is probably one of the controversial books on this list. It's quite a big read.

It's quite a long read.

Some people read it and think it's quite manipulative or cynical, but I think there's you got to look deeper than that to really get the point.

Robert Green breaks down 48 laws of power based on historical examples.

And whether you like it or not, these dynamics exist in every workplace, every business, every social setting.

What I found really valuable about this book, especially coming from a corporate environment, is that it helped me understand what is actually happening around me.

why certain people got promoted over others who are more qualified.

Why some projects got funded and others didn't.

It wasn't always about merit or hard work.

There were these unspoken rules at play and the people who understood them had a massive advantage.

If anything, this book taught me just to become more aware of the dynamics at play and some of the games that people can play around you.

I don't necessarily agree with applying a lot of these laws in your own life, but just being aware of them can make you protect yourself a little bit more.

So, if you've ever felt like you work hard but don't understand why you're not getting ahead, or if you've been blindsided by office politics, this book will open your eyes to what's really going on. And a book by Robin Wait called Fearless Pricing.

He recently spoke in my inner circle community and a lot of members went on to buy that book and said it really helped them strategically apply a framework to build and scale their business.

All of these books are linked below.

Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next